How Did Hong Kong Become Like This!? Zhongshan Has Been Emptied Out Too!? Just to Put Food on the Table — Why Is That Old Woman in Tianjin Kneeling on the Street?!! Qiqi Baba TALK Episode 985 20260930

This episode is hosted by anchor Qi Qi and mainly discusses the current economic downturn and physical retail depression in mainland China. The program features multiple submissions from netizens and video clips, including a controversy sparked by an elderly resident in Tianjin whose street stall goods were confiscated, massive closures of shops in the Zhongshan lighting market and commercial streets everywhere, broken factory capital chains, and severe survival and livelihood pressures faced by merchants and workers. It also touches upon the current situation of Hong Kong students and the broader background of China attempting to close its doors and losing commercial credibility.

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Hello everyone, welcome to Qi Qi Baba, I am Qi Qi. Uh, National Day is coming right up, which is China's National Day. I just happened to see the situation of some Hong Kong students, and after watching it, I was really rendered speechless—well, not just speechless, utterly speechless.

[Video clip] The Five-Star Red Flag flutters in the wind, how loud and clear the song of victory is. Sing for our dear.

[Video clip] Beloved motherland.

[Video clip] Marching toward prosperity and strength. Sing for our dear motherland, marching toward prosperity and strength from now on.

On this side, people are being brainwashed step by step, and what kind of faces do they show to the ordinary people on the other side?

[Video clip] Help! Help! Oh, can't save him, just compensate him, compensate him!

[Video clip] Big Head, it's over! Stop selling, just give it to him, isn't that it?

[Video clip] What are you doing? Give it to him!

[Video clip] Exactly, look, the old person.

[Video clip] Really! You give it to him, he gives it, isn't that it? Just sell it and be done with it!

[Video clip] Mom, fuck!

[Video clip] It's been seven days! Change the day and leave, wouldn't that be it? He won't sell, won't sell, won't sell.

[Video clip] Love it, let's go.

[Video clip] I'm not doing this anymore, what should I buy? Buy a mattress, maybe? You tell me, what kind of personality is this? Fighting and brawling less, she can. What's wrong? You're at this age—not that you're at this age, another year has passed, relieving stress every day.

[Video clip] Oh, at her age, what kind of things is she even selling?

[Video clip] That's right, you've lived through it. Is there anything else? Hong Kong, is it Hong Kong? Ah! Hey, what else do you have? Don't call me, don't call me, don't call me! Come on, what else is there? There.

[Video clip] In a moment, old guys arguing over sugar will be fatal.

[Video clip] Who was it? Wasn't it just him? Oh, these are all socks, what's wrong now? How much are they even worth?

[Video clip] What are you talking about?

[Video clip] Hey, fine, don't sell anymore! Don't sell anymore! Hey, don't sell, don't sell, everyone says so.

[Video clip] Selling won't make a profit anyway.

[Video clip] Just keep selling! In a moment your head will hurt, which is even more fatal, and you'll end up in the hospital.

[Video clip] Make way, they've gone after the sellers, it's not like this.

[Video clip] It's over, completely over! You go, you go, it's fine, go inside the hall and eat.

Because this incident happened in Tianjin, where this elderly grandmother was selling some of her handmade crafts on the street. I feel that if you say she was blocking the path, or her spot was wrong, or you don't allow her to set up a stall, that's all fine. But is there any need to confiscate all of it like this? How much painstaking effort did she put into making these? What is the reason you insist on driving people who are struggling so hard to survive into a dead end? Especially the Chinese Communist Party, what do you tell people every day? And how do you actually treat them in reality? Which person working in the CCP government actually thinks about and does things for the ordinary people? Even a single one? It simply doesn't exist.

[Video Clip] Do you believe that you can enjoy the moon for free during the Mid-Autumn Festival?

[Video Clip] It's because of this moon.

[Video Clip] It hangs in the sky; if it were on the ground, it might also be fenced off. Today, our lighting world has seen another major scandal. Ouchi, once a leader in Sangzhaoling, actually issued a notice today saying they have shut down. When everyone is fighting over 9.9 yuan spotlights with free shipping, a single shell from Ouchi could sell for 50 or 60 yuan, and its annual output value could reach 100 million. Why did they shut down? It must be a broken capital chain. So, for a factory, once the capital chain breaks, the road ahead is very difficult. Why do all our customers now demand cash payments? There is a reason for this. If we want to keep going, our settlement method must change, because the profit margins are really too thin now. I say our gross profit on a lamp is only 10 percent, and many customers probably don't believe it, but the profit is just that thin now, the gross profit is just 10 percent.

[Video Clip] Finally, for this shop, I invested 500,000, and now there's not even a single person here. Look at this street, I don't know why business is so bad now.

[Video Clip] It's already 6:00 PM.

[Video Clip] Qiqi Baba TALK Episode 985, 20260930.

[Video Clip] There's not a single person in the shop. This shop is 360 square meters in total, and the annual rent is tens of thousands. At the time, this sofa cost 8,500, and this coffee table cost 2,000. Um, to match this cyan carpet, this carpet cost 1,500. If I can't keep running it, I don't think I can give them an explanation, after all, they've been with me for so many years. But now the situation is that if I keep going, I'll lose tens of thousands a year. But if I close the shop, all these investments might go down the drain.

[Video Clip] The lighting business in Guzhen is really too hard to endure this year. Many peers around my store and across the street have closed one by one. Recently, I heard that a familiar peer is planning to quit, and it feels quite bitter. Of course, there are peers who are doing well, but there are just too many who can't hold on and choose to exit. We, the post-70s generation, can turn and leave when we're tired of working for others, but for us who open physical stores, where is the way out? The mall, to be honest.

[Video Clip] I'm a bit...

[Video Clip] ...here, it feels eerie during the day, let alone at night. Fuck! So, without large-scale commercial operations, it's really like a stagnant pool. Look at this, this, this, this, this used to be a food court, so many people, it was really, really crowded here. Over here is a large restaurant, I used to attend other people's weddings and such here often.

[Video Clip] Look.

[Video Clip] This.

[Video Clip] There's no one home, these food courts have gone bankrupt, clothing stores have gone bankrupt, the only thing that hasn't gone bankrupt is this pool hall.

[Video Clip] I worked as a long-term employee for the boss lady for three years, and every Mid-Autumn Festival, she wouldn't give out mooncakes. This Mid-Autumn Festival, I asked the boss lady, 'Are you giving out mooncakes?' The boss lady said, 'There are no mooncakes to give, what are you talking about!' When I heard the boss lady say that, ah! I really followed the right boss lady.

[Video Clip] This 50 yuan bill, I will put it in a drawer in my living room in Lecong Town, Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province. It's already been put in there. If you need it, you can come and get it. I hope this little bit of kindness from me can help you, boss.

[Video Clip] Do you have a toilet at home?

[Video Clip] Ah! A toilet. No.

[Video Clip] Boss, do you have tiles at home?

[Video Clip] Tiles? No, no. Um, come, do you have an advertising sign at home? An advertising sign? Um. Auntie, no, ah.

[Video Clip] Boss, do you have a tricycle?

[Video Clip] No, ah! Look at what kind of place this is. You're buying a tricycle.

[Video Clip] Big brother.

[Video Clip] Go all out, the more you know, the more you can't move towards success.

[Video Clip] Boss Song, I'm back to work overtime. Boss Song, I'm not angry, I'm willing to work overtime. Today Boss Wang told me he wants a batch of goods, I don't know how to send it, you come out and take a look. Boss Song, I'm back to work overtime. Boss Song, where are you? Boss Song, I see you, don't hide.

[Video Clip] That car company is barely surviving, and you're still mocking them for giving out few mooncakes? Can you give others a way to live? It's already good enough that they are still thinking about giving you mooncakes in such a difficult environment.

[Video Clip] Brothers, look at the queue at Jingtai Plaza, I'm afraid that after we finish work, even buying a mooncake for five yuan will feel like a sky-high price to us taxi drivers.

[Video Clip] Friends, bosses, look, we still have so many gift boxes left, what should we do? You tell me, tear them apart! Your Mid-Autumn Festival is completely over today. How much money did you all make today?

[Video Clip] Please rest assured, fellow peers, my 200-square-meter shop also had zero business during the Mid-Autumn Festival, all the high-end liquor has been dumped! Please rest assured, fellow peers.

[Video Clip] Now in Zhongshan, who dares to make lamps? A few days ago, I took a big order for 3,500 600mm panel lights, packing two shipping containers, totaling over 100 cubic meters. It was an order worth over 400,000 RMB, but after calculating, the profit was only a little over 8,000 RMB. I make just over 2 RMB profit per lamp; I'd be better off collecting bottles on the street. Meanwhile, others turn around and sell them on Amazon, making a profit on every single set sold.

[Video Clip] Let me show you, they're all closed. This entire row is basically shut down. Even the large stores—this is a commercial street, after all. Now, at what should be the busiest time of night, there's not a single soul on the street. Let me show you, closed down. It feels kind of desolate, with row after row, shop after shop all shut. Seeing that downstairs everything is closed with no business, being upstairs suddenly makes me feel much more at ease. The Mid-Autumn Festival has passed.

[Video Clip] My heart feels ice-cold. The alcohol on the Chinese market hasn't moved, the staple food hasn't moved, and even the most ordinary milk hasn't budged at all. Could it be that when you all go to your relatives' houses for a reunion dinner, you go empty-handed?

[Video Clip] Folks, this is our old Zhongshan Road, and now the storefronts are completely empty. Landlords who used to sit at home shaking their legs in ease are now probably shaking at home in fear, fucking empty, everything's empty.

[Video Clip] Oh. We're starving again, this year is even worse than last year. More than half a year has passed, and my wallet is still an empty shell; I work from dawn till dusk every day.

[Video Clip] For the Mid-Autumn Festival, our family bought some mooncakes, stocked up on fruit, and let me show you our lunch. Look, a bowl of noodles per person, plus a one-RMB plate of smashed cucumbers, and we managed to get through the holiday just like that. Are there any of you in the same boat? Share your meals so we can all take a look.

[Video Clip] I used to be a live-streamer, a dancing streamer making around 30,000 RMB a month. Now I have zero income and am a full-time stay-at-home mom reaching out for money. Ah, I used to shine brightly in the live-streaming room, making money through my own ability and living with full confidence. Now I'm trapped in the trivialities of family life and have lost my radiance. What I used to make in a single live stream was more than my monthly expenses now. For the sake of my family and children, I've started learning to live frugally, saving money and budgeting carefully. Actually, I've been anxious for a long time; I often dream about live-streaming even in my sleep, ah, and I yearn for that past self—ah, the one who could just casually show off her charm and have many bros and sisters support her by sending gifts, shining brightly. Before I got married and had kids, I had everything planned out. Ah, I said once I had the kid, I'd hand them over to my mom or someone else to raise, because I definitely didn't want to raise one myself. Ah, I could just continue making money through live-streaming, then go traveling and do whatever I wanted. But once you actually have a kid, hey, it's just not like that at all.

[Video Clip] A new wave of closures has arrived; all my good neighbors are wiped out, completely finished. A few were still open before, but now none of them are operating. This one store was being renovated and still hasn't opened yet; I don't know what kind of shop it's supposed to be, why isn't it open yet? We're the only lonely survivors left here, and this side is dark too, completely dark.

[Video Clip] There's nobody on the streets, nobody in the malls, nobody in the office buildings, nobody in the factories, and not even a soul in the villages. When China had a population of 1.3 billion, it felt like there were people everywhere; now that China has 1.4 billion people, you can't see anyone wherever you go. Could they have all gone to other cities? Does anyone know?

[Video Clip] There's no one in the big mall either, and this is during the Mid-Autumn holiday. There are more clerks than customers. The fourth floor is empty, and you can't see anyone on the third, second, or first floors. Places with these construction barricades are already cleared out. Ahead here is another spot where equipment is being removed, though they can't haul it away today. The boss said to hold out until after the National Day holiday because there's still a deposit with the property management, and management told them if they clear out now, it won't look good for the upcoming holidays. We won't disclose which store it is for now, just filming it to show our loyal followers.

[Video Clip] Look at how people used to work, bustling with activity, haha. Around the 15th of the eighth month and National Day in previous years, people would basically be on holiday, haha. And the people working? Swarms of them. Look at now. Yesterday, well, just these past couple of days, I saw the stock prepared at home looking solid, I mean the stock here at the supermarket looked completely stocked up. I wasn't sitting idle; I was just preparing some essentials to hold out. I was thinking, should I start working? Today is supposed to be the busiest time for us here. But tomorrow? Tomorrow everyone basically logs off, meaning the first day of the holiday. In previous years, people would be crazy busy working at this time.

Uh, I feel like what I'm about to say next is something many friends probably already know, which is that there are many small counties or small cities in China that survive because of a single product. For example, a new town under Huludao City only makes swimwear, right? It's a famous swimwear city, and there are many, many others. Back then, China truly was the world's factory; goods for many major brands were supplied to the entire world by the people of just one village or one city. Was it glorious? Of course! When taking orders from all over the world back then, how magnificent it was! But now? Uh, after a series of operations, now the country's doors are closing. Coupled with a lack of commercial integrity, everyone has seen your true colors, and you always lure people in just to slaughter them. Gradually, a business without integrity and credit cannot go on. So now, many factories, as well as the people themselves, have either already run or are preparing to run. Well, that is all for this episode. If you want to support me, please join the member channel. If you have other questions you'd like to ask me, you are also very welcome to join, and you can chat with me in real-time during member live streams. That's all for this episode, see you next time.